Evris hugged my shoulders. “This has nothing to do with Decimus. He and I tried to convince the others to let him free,but Peregrine is our strongest ruler, and his word cannot be overridden. He is the first being of Gehenna; it is his way or the highway down there. He is dead set on Atlas fulfilling his sentencing. If you couldn’t convince him, I don’t think anyone can.”
“This isn’t fair!” I wailed, choking on a mixture of weak cries and pain, “He can’t be down there for a hundred years! I need him! I need my dad!”
“I know, I know. I’ll do whatever I can to make this better, Nick, I swear. At least, if he’s in my Layer, I can control what happens to him. I’ll do my best to keep him safe.” Decimus knelt beside me and peered at me from under my hair. “I know we have our problems, but I swear, I won’t let Atlas suffer. You need to trust me right now, more than you ever have before. Can you do that?”
“Do I have a choice!” I sniveled out.
“No, not really.” He poked my nose once. “Try and rest. Once you’re feeling better, I’ll come give you an update on your dad. Right now, you need to get better and help us with damage control. Give Peregrine some time; he might change his mind once he’s cooled down.”
“Don’t be sad, sweetie. Things will be ok.” Evris kissed my hair before she and Decimus went through their own portal, leaving me to sob uncontrollably for much of the night.
Chapter twenty-five
Good Intentions
Nicodemus
Seraphine and Endymion waited outside the eighth door of theSeptem Ostia1 for me, both in their Elemental forms and looking incredibly serious. This door was used for many things, usually as a way for us to travel to and from Odrikius from Valyce’s Realm, but today, it would serve the purpose it had served me once before: opening the entrance to Purgatory.
I sauntered up the walkway slowly, as I was still feeling like I had been hit by a truck, but at least I was mobile once again. Much of my body was still wrapped in bandages, but Lysander had cleared me to help the two past Gods with organizing Purgatory, so I must not have been as bad off as I felt.
Seraphine had her long white hair pulled into a loose bun, which she secured with a black scrunchy. She was usually very formal in how she dressed and carried herself, but she didn’t have patience to keep up the façade with the daunting task ahead of us.
Endymion’s own white locks were braided and clipped into place, freeing his face from the overwhelming heaviness of his hair. He had deep bags under his eyes, like he hadn’t slept in centuries, though he forced a smile for me.
I paused before the two, looking them up and down. They didn’t understand why I was doing this and tilted their heads in unison at me. “Huh,” I puffed.
“What?” Endymion blurted.
“Erasmus certainly has a type. Seraphine is literally the female version of you.” They both tsked and waved their hands at me as I let out a loose laugh, trying to break the tension a bit. “Come on, tell me I’m wrong!”
“Are you ready to do this or what?” Seraphine laughed, pinching my cheek with her long black nails.
“I suppose so. How do you want to split this up?”
“I’ll handle The Waiting Room,” Seraphine affirmed, “I know that will be the biggest shit show, and with Nick still under the weather, and this old fart being so out of the game, I figured it would ease the stress on you guys.”
“Har, har,” Endymion flatly retorted with an eyeroll. “Since you and Gehenna aren’t getting along too great right now, I’ll tackle those souls.”
“I haven’t worked with Caelum in a long time. It’ll be a nice change,” I sighed.
Seraphine smoothed my hair back with her delicate fingers. “The moment you feel off, let us know, and we will take a break for the day. Endymion and I can handle more than you think.”
“You sure you don’t want me to handle The Waiting Room?” I offered.
Her merlot lips pulled upward. “The Gods have asked me to take over for Atlas while he is, well, you know, so this is part of my new role. Since you’ve restored my powers, I can become Grim again, and that makes things a lot easier. I will take overyour training and keep the Shadow Realm from imploding, I promise.”
“You’re going to train me!” I gasped in astonishment.
“I’m not some old fuddy-duddy, you know! I beat this moron’s assandsurvived Atlas’s fight. Take THAT universe!” she triumphantly cried, shaking Endymion, who laughed at her antics with me.
“You are a true badass,” I giggled out, brushing my eyes clear before gripping the door handle. “No time like the present, right?”
“Right,” they repeated. I turned the knob, and as I did, all of us transitioned into our Grim forms. I expected us to be replicas of one another, but to my surprise, that was very opposite the case.
Seraphine was absolutely beautiful. Her skeleton body still harbored a long, smoke-like cloak like mine and Dad’s, but she had a flowing black dress that cascaded down her long frame. Her hair was replaced by the same black smoke of her cloak, but it fell down her bone shoulders and sat on them delicately, constantly swirling in little curls. She had a crown of black lilies atop her head, with needles sharp as can be poking out of the delicate flowers.
Endymion, to my surprise, wore all white. His cloak, armor, scythe… all were a blinding white color, with black accents running ruins down his body. Each one was archaic protection charms that glowed to life against his bone body. He had an assortment of black roses hand-stitched into his cloak, as roses seemed to be his signature, and they traveled up throughout the cloak and to his scythe, which held plumes of them that dropped constant petals onto the ground though the flowers replenished themselves repeatedly.
